Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

More bad news (and some good)

TORONTO — Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news? Well, I guess it’s up to me, so I’ll get the bad out of the way: Vernon Wells is expected to miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring.

That’s not good. So Wells is back on the DL and sidelined until some time in August. No word on who the Jays are going to be calling up, but scanning the Minor League report here, Matt Watson seems a likely candidate. Wayne Lydon and Buck Coats are also options. Travis Snider could be a darkhorse, but I doubt Toronto would want to start the clock on him so soon.

The good news? It doesn’t look like Dustin McGowan will need surgery on his sore right shoulder. He has a tear in hsi rotator cuff, but the MRI revealed no new damage when compared to an MRI McGowan had on his shoulder near the end of last season. It’s normal wear and tear, so his shoulder may just have some inflammation right now.

Just to be safe, Dr. Timothy “I performed Tommy John surgery on B.J. Ryan” Kremcheck is going to take a gander at McGowan’s MRI results on Monday, with an appointment with the pitcher to follow probably some time next week. McGowan is out at least a month and maybe longer. Don’t expect him back on a mound until mid to late August.

For now, Brian Tallet will make a spot start on Sunday. Following the All-Star break, David Purcey may get the call to fill in for McGowan. Shaun Marcum will be due to return shortly after the break as well, so that will help. If A.J. Burnett isn’t dealt, that’s a rotation of Roy Halladay, Burnett, Jesse Litsch, Marcum and Parrish/Purcey in the second half.

There’s still plenty of talk about Burnett being dealt before the trade deadline, though. The Jays have reportedly sent assistent GM Tony Lacava out to scout Phillies Minor Leagues in anticipation of Philadelphia coming calling on Burnett’s availability. The two sides have engaged in talks yet, but Toronto is getting ready to listen for sure.

I am glad Parrish is getting a chance, but I do hope he settles down tonight. The most exciting player in Syracuse this year (and the last couple) is Wayne Lydon. Speed speed speed – but he needs a better OBP and a little more judgement on the basepaths. Caught being too aggressive now and then. Hard to argue with Watson’s numbers right now either. Snider should wait til September. Not giving up on this year unless we’re still under .500 at the end of July.

Garry,
First, I wasn’t upset . The problem with the typed word is you don’t get the inflection of a voice . Second , bite your tongue, BosoxBrian is a Redsox fan….ewwwww……lol… plus he couldn’t handle me .

Ugly news on Wells , this year is looking more and more like a repeat of last year with all the injuries . Lets hope they don’t give up , third place looks better than last . Take care all

Hey all, I wasn’t sick — just had a couple days off after that West coast swing. Checked out the Toronto Zoo yesterday and was very impressed with the place. That’s one quality zoo. Anyway…

The last we heard on Accardo was that he could potentially be back in two weeks or so, and that was when I was in Anaheim. I’d say some time after the All-Star break. He didn’t need surgery and was given the go-ahead to ramp up his rehab.

Not sure on Robinzon Diaz. He had a bad ankle sprain and was in Florida rehabbing so he naturally started off in the GCL. Being down there, he’s close to Toronto’s training facitility and trainers and all that. I would assume he’s not far off from moving up again, but I don’t know for sure.

Also heard that Kevin Mench wasn’t in the lineup for Syracuse tonight, so he could be coming up to replace Wells for now. We’ll see what happens. I really doubt Snider would get the call this early. I don’t think you’ll see him in Toronto until September.

And even with the injuries to Wells and McGowan, don’t assume the Jays will cool on the idea of moving Burnett. If they can get a decent package of prospects, Toronto probably wouldn’t shy away from dealing A.J. Let’s be honest, despite what the Jays might say, it’s getting to the point where looking to the future might be the best route.

Thank you Jordan, for your answers-that’s good news on Accardo.
I do agree on Burnett-it makes little sense to keep him when we might get some good value.
One other question Jordan., Johnathon Jaspe ( Lansing )missed a great deal of playing time this year because of some sort of restricted list. I’m wondering if that was a visa problem or something. I’ve never heard of a restricted list before. Any ideas?

Garry
Lind will become our best clutch hitter-just give him time. Cito is doing a marvelous job in building his confidence. Lind hit .440 with risp in AAA; that didn’t happen by accident-this kid loves to hit with ducks on the pond. We are fortunate in that a number of our young gun hitters like Lind, Snider, Diaz, Arrenciba, Jaspe and Cooper (although its early on Cooper) are all good risp hitters. I look forward to seeing them all up here.

You got to like how Cito has these guys starting to hit with RISP. It’s too bad we aren’t getting the same pitching we had earlier in the season, because if we were, I think we could get on a serious run.

I think we should still keep Burnett in the Market especially when so many pitchers went on the DL recently. (Seattle is missing Felix and Bedard)

Lind is doing a great job and when i turned the channel on tonight it was 5 -4 with rolen up…next pitch he inside out swings in into RF and then overbay sac flies and then lind singles/doubles … not quite sure….i think i am good luck for this team now :P

I think its too early to bring Snider up even though i am desperate to see him play…same can be said with Cecil…JP said that he was thinking of calling up Arecibia and Snider in September call-ups so gsumner you may get your wish with the C position.

If you want to know news about Accardo…he apparently blogs on sportsnet.ca during his injury and i think he makes 1 blog/week or something…

Garry
We need to be patient with League. When he was injured last year he changed his arm angle of delivery, which also increased movement in his pitches, which is a good thing. However, he still hasn’t got control of it. Anone who can throw a 97 mph sinker which drops 8-9 inches is a keeper. The question is whether he should be getting it under control up here or in Syracuse. One thing is for sure, when he harnesses it he will be devastaing and could be a serious closer.

To me Jason Donald looked ok? he has a strikeout every 4-5 atbats and to me thats not so good. 68K in 293 atbats

Greg Olson might be good but don’t we have a jampacked outfeild already (Snider, Lind, Rios, Wells) and thats already a pretty solid outfeild for atleast 5 years to come and I am thinking Lind would go to DH. So no point in acquiring Olson. I would think we would pick up one more good pitching prospect. After Doc, marcum and Mcgowan all we have is Purcey, Cecil and Litsch. That means 2/3 of them take the spot. This also means that we can only afford 1 starter injury and still have a good backup. Also Mcgowan has been real inconsistent as has litsch and purcey is having command issues. So these things always pop up with pitches and thus we need one more good pitching prospect for some error margin.

About Sexson…I had no clue his RISP was .123…that certainly means think over things especially now that the Jays seem to be pulling it together >.<

Np Gsumner….i like sportsnet.ca….YOU HAVE TO READ SCOTT CARSON’S COLUMNs…THEY ARE ONE OF THE BEST…Jamie also has a blog set up i read his too sometimes…other than that they are usually one of the first to have the trade that will happen and some rumors (95% of the time)

I also just saw we hit 100 mark on the old column? … just like old times if i remember it was garry, sumner, robertlee, khoenig, indigo, enigma, bosox and ofcourse me…if i remember correctly we hit the 100 mark for like 10 blogs straight….

Harry-Well, so far Parrish has done a very nice job-better than AJ Burnett by far, and certainly a nice fill-in. Litcsh is a fabulous 5th starter and ranked 18th in the AL. Purcey needs what McGowan needed, give him a consistent 5-10 starts and he will be a keeper. He didn’t become an all-star in AAA this year because of lack of talent-he just needs confidence at this level and once he gets it he’ll be fine. The pitcher we have with a control problem who I really worry about is Burnett-but hopefully not for long.

Check out our pitching in Lansing. We have the league team lead in era, innings pitched, k’s, 2nd in whip, etc. We have lots of very solid pitching prospects at that level and below. It looks like this years draft of pitching talent is on par with last year, so whoever is picking them in the Jays organization is doing a good job, since we have 16 pitchers with era’s under 3.00 in our two rookie teams of Auburn and GCL Jays.

We also recently promoted Kenny Rodriguez from Dunedin (A+) to New Hampshire (AA) and he’s doing well with a 3.00 era in his first two starts. This is the kid who pitched for the Cuban national team, so he’s more experienced than most AA kids and looks like he could be a quality starter.
The one who is a bit disappointing is Rickie Romero-a number one draftee who’s still struggling with control at AA and has an era of 5.89 with 45 bb’s in 94 innings. It would be nice to see him turn around for us.

Harry-personally I still like Escobar and Gamel from the Milwaukee minors, but I’d take Jason Donald because of his power stats and BA. It’s not often you see a short stop hit 11 hr’s and drive in 43 runs in 75 games. Escobar doesn’t have the power, but hits for higher average, better obp and steals more bases so he’d fit as a lead off hitter and as a result I like him better for our needs.

I personally prefer to see k’s instead of GIDP’s, particular when he’s still hitting in the .300 range. It gives me a feeling this kid will hit a lot of HR’s and drive in tons of runs as he matures. I also was surprised to see them say we had any interest in an outfielder-who has limited power, our guys Lind and Snider are much better.

I haven’t checked the stats on Greg Olson so I can’t be sure but i still think getting the prospects form Milwaukee is a pipe dream. Plus i heard that milaukee is looking to bring up Gamel since they are platooning with hall and branyan and its about time milaukee puts him to use…

You might be right on Donald though…if he matures his K’s might go down and Hr up.
I hope you are right on Purcey too, maybe a spell of 2-3 starts under Gaston can prove to be the difference (see lind)

Apparently I wasn’t aware of the abundance of pitchers we have…then all we need now is a good SS and 3B (cooper at 1st, hill at 2nd, wells rios and snider in OF, lind at DH, Arencibia at C, Halladay Marcum Mcgowan Cecil Litsch/Purcey starting) to me that looks really strong especially if everyone lives up to their potential.

Great win by the jays last night and it was especially nice to see one of the future peices of the puzzle come through. I think of Marcum can return to his old form quickly when he returns the team can still make things interesting. I’m not saying they’ll make it but they can make the teams ahead “sweat” a bit. Anyway, I find it so sad that Wells is injured again. The last 2 yrs have really been a downer for him. He hasn’t been able to perform to his capabalities for a long stretch in a while. Hopefully next year he can stay healthy and justify his contract relative to other players. Big fan of his, I think he and Halladay are under appreciated in this town.

I read an interesting solution to the Jays’ shortstop problem just now: If Inglett continues to hit the way he has why not move Hill back to short ? food for thought.
Or instead of asking for a shortstop why not a second baseman….Personally, i’d keep Hill at second unless they absolutely can’t find a shortstop.

Harry
One thing that would be interesting to try is for the Jays to turn one of either Diaz, Arrenciba or Johnathon Jaspe into a 3rd baseman. All 3 are great bats. I get the feeling Jaspe might be the best option for that because of his size being smaller than either Diaz or Arrenciba. Jaspe is only 5′ 10″ and 200 pounds which is smaller. He’s hitting .381BA/.431OBP with 3 hr’s in 28 games.

Good to see you guys are back. I always thought I had a chance with Indigo but she ripped me pretty good, lol. No surprise, I get ripped in person and on blogs, lol. I hope the Jays give a beat down to the Yankees this weekend. Where will Burnett end up? Philly? Dodgers?

Rematch of Halladay and Chamberlain. Where does Jaspe play? Sometimes players who play in Single A and do good don’t carry that over to Double or Triple AAA. This might be because Single A doesn’t provide a huge sample size (28 games is alright…not the greatest though). So lets hope he continues to do good.

Another thing didn’t we have Brian Jerolaman at C, who they say was excellent defensively but ok/bad at batting (JMAC), however he walked 1/3 at-bats or something. I would think he would be a catcher other teams are interested in too. That gives us 5 catchers…2 of which are really good, 2 are ok, 1 should be given more time to decide whether he is good or not. Lets trade atleast 2 of them…i am thinking Thigpen for sure.

Here is the thing…I would rather have Jerolman as backup (if what i said above is true). Then when we bring Diaz and Arecibia up this would mean that we can trade one of them (Diaz preferably too sicne he is a starter) leaving us with Jerolman as backup and Jaspe.

I am not sure if converted catchers are good at 3B? but they might try it with him as they tried converting Thigpen to Second.

Harry
Jaspe plays in Lansing and in his 3rd year as a pro. He’s been consistenly in the .285 to .300 range but this year taken off. Jeroloman is in AA and struggling, hitting only .245, he has walked 40 times, but hasn’t hit as well as he did last year in Dunedin. I don’t know what his value would be in a trade either today or in the fuure. Personally, of the 4, he’s at the bottom of the bunch for me. As of today, if I was to trade any of the 4, the first to go would be Jeroloman. I’d hang on to both Diaz and Arreciba for here, try to turn Jaspe into another position and if that didn’t work, trade one of either Diaz, Arrenciba or Jaspe in a year or two.

Jays looking for a s.s. but not Lowrie. I hope he is the Sox s.s. soon. I can’t take Lugo anymore. Boston needs to get rid of Lugo soon. Late July or during the winter. It sounds like Burnett will be dealt in late July. That would be a good move by the Jays if they got rid of him. Also that means Boston wouldn’t have to face Burnett, he seems to rise to the occasion when he pitches against Boston. I would like too see Burnett’s numbers against teams with a winning record and losing record. I would assume he pitches his best against the good teams. Just a hunch on my part. Late July is always a fun time of year. Even the Rays are looking to add something to the mix. A reliever, perhaps Fuentes from the Rockies. Also they would like to add a right handed hitting outfielder like Xavier Nady of the Pirates. I think the Rays should go after Huston Street from the A’s. Percival the Rays closer isn’t getting any younger and has hamstring problems.

Bosox
I can’t blame you guys for hanging on to Lowrie-I’m surprised he’s not up by now. Burnett has had 3 good games all year, against Boston, LA and Atlanta. His problem has been walks with 56 in 118 innings. Of course, the 10 Hr’s didn’t help either. He has had a bad tendancy of giving up a big inning, just like his last start. He threw 1 hit ball for 4 innings and then gave up a bunch of runs. It’s like he either looses focus or falls asleep. I think his biggest control problem is between his ears. I look forward to seeing him gone, and I expect he will be before the end of July.

I would hope and expect we will be huge sellers this year. It’s time to re-build cause what we have isn’t getting the job done. In my view other than Marcum, McGowan, Litsch, Hill, Lind, Rios, League, Janssen and Accardo al others are trade bait for young prospects

I am hoping Lowrie will up sometime after the trading deadline. I was very impressed with him when he came up for that brief time this year. He can play 3 infield positions and well and has a pretty good bat. Cora can fill in at times to give the kid a breather. Lugo can’t do anything right. When he made 3 errors in Toronto back in early April, most said he was tired from the Japan trip. In my opinion he made 3 errors because he is not that good. At least last year Lugo drove in some runs, certainly not the case this year. Hitting around .150 with runners in scor. pos.

I don’t think the Jays should trade Halladay, pitchers like him don’t grow on trees. He is one of my favorites to watch. Old school pitching out there and I like that.

No question Halliday is one of the best. However, if we need to rebuild, we likely won’t contend for 3-4 years and by that time Halliday would be 35-36. That being said I wouldn’t give him away, but if TB offered a combination of David Price and Evan Longoria, I’d do the deal without hesitation.

Gsumner I am not sure that we are ‘rebuilding’ per say. Frankly we have a good stock of young players already in the minors and a few up here (a couple) so we are not technically rebuilding. Rebuilding a team in sports is when all you have is old guys…no future…and the team isn’t getting it done
I don’t think that this bill quite fits Toronto exactly. Yes we aren’t getting it done but we have some young and some old guys and we DO have future impact players.

Bosox welcome back Indigo never shot you down change teams become a Blue Jay fan and you might have a chance if I was a young man I would, give it a shot and if she’s that much woman you would be a fool not to.

I also think it would be a mistake to trade Doc he can lead the young pitchers on the staff,where could you find a better teacher,Doc is to vaulable to get rid of.

Brian,
I ripped you pretty good ?…lol… I guess it could be worse, you could be a Yankees fan…ewwww…………lol.. Actually I love all baseball but I am loyal to the jays . Our local team are the Redsox and they are a very good team . They came in 2nd last year , beat out by the Toronto Maple Leafs ( atleast one Leaf team is good )

I don’t think the Jays should trade Doc either . A good team is the right mix of new and veteran players , veteran does not have to mean numerically old. Doc is a work horse and his work ethic sets not just a great example for pitchers, but all players . He can give a BP a day of rest . I believe he is one of those pitchers who could quite easily pitch very well into his 40s. He is the face of the Jays and my vote would be to keep him.

Indigo
I agree on the veteran mix, but remember if we contend in 3-4 years Marcum, McGowan, Litsch, Hill, Lind, Rios, League, Janssen and Accardo will be the veteran base.

Although I do feel Halliday will be good for another few years, right now if we traded him, we would get serious prospects and players-like maybe David Price and Evan Longoria. Longoria is an all-star this year and Price could be the next Johan Santana. Both of these guys would be in their prime in 3-4 years when I’d expect we can compete again and it’s questionable what Halliday will deliver at that time. To get them, I’d trade Hallday and be estatic with the deal.

I just don’t see us winning with this current team and the faster we recogize it and the more aggresive we are in trades, the faster we will contend again. At the start of this season I picked us for either 3rd or 4th depending on how TB played. This team has had a problem with hitting with risp for the last 3-4 years because of the makeup of the players and we did nothing to change that last winter.

If we do nothing significant, I see us in the same position next year-so for me it’s a question of whether we want to win or just hang around in 3rd or 4th place, like the Maple Leafs.

Atleast with Doc , the Jays know what they have . Prospects don’t come with any guarantees either Both Hughes and Kennedy of the Yankees are good examples of that ,both have struggled . Hughes has had several injuries and Kennedy has problems pitching at the major league level . Jay’s own Purcey seems to struggle when he comes to the majors not to mention Russ Adams and Ricky Romero. I am not saying to not trade several Jays players , I just wouldn’t include Doc in that list .

Indigo
To be frank with you, I wish we were contending like JP told us we would and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion-but we’re 9 games back in the wild card and rapidly running out of time.
Hey, I like Doc a lot, but I want to win. In order to win, I don’t think we can fall in love with any of these guys-including Doc. Right now he provides us with a great trading chip for great prospects, although Longoria is an all star 3rd baseman who’s already hit 16 hr’s and driven in 53 this year so he’s a proven quanity. Price was the most sought after college pitcher in a long time, currently has an era of 1.42 in AA and has every scout in baseball raving about him. He will be a September call up this year.

True Hughes and Kennedy have struggled as a lot of young pitchers do, but I do think they will become quality starters, although neither one of them has the tools Price does. Also, remember Doc struggled in his first couple of years as well. Purcey, in my view, simply needs to be ran out there 5-10 times in order to get aclimatized and he will be fine. Romero has never pitched up here yet and it’s questionable whether he ever will.

The bottom line, is in my view we’re not going to contend the way we are and sigificant changes mean we probably won’t contend for 3-4 years. Doc’s value to us and everyone else is a lot higher right now than it will be in 3-4 years. Today he might get us two exceptional players like Price and Longoria; in 3-4 years its really uncertain what he will return.

Hey sumner,
I am definite that Tampa is not going to give us both Longoria and Price. Here is the reason why do they really need Doc? No. They have Sheilds and Kazmir to lead them and then they have solid pitchers in Jackson, Garza and Sonnastine. Tampa doesn’t need a pitcher like halladay espeically at the cost of Longoria and Price. As a matter of fact Tampa is looking towards trading one of their pitchers for space to bring up Price (read the mlb trade rumors).

With the Phillies still actively looking to upgrade their pitching rotation, one name that has bubbled to the surface as a possible acquisition is Blue Jays righthander A.J. Burnett. Toronto’s director of player personnel Tony Lacava recently spent a couple of days at Double A Reading scouting various prospects.

The Blue Jays are known to have interest in acquiring a shortstop, and Phillies prospect Jason Donald has drawn some interest from teams around the league. Catcher Lou Marson and outfielder Greg Golson are two other players who interest the Blue Jays, although the Phillies are reluctant to give up Marson, who could fill a need in the big leagues sometime in the near future.

***The Phillies can keep Marson, we’re hip deep in catching prospects and our guys look better than him. I hope this trade goes down and we get Donald and Golson. Having a short stop with power would be a nice luxury, although he might need some help with his defense. He’s being compared to a younger Jed Lowrie. Golson as a 4-5 tool outfielder, was rated to have the most speed of any prospect drafted in 2004 by Baseball America and is rated to be the Phillies top power hitting prospect. If the power does develop, he could become a Rios look alike.

If they traded Doc today those young pitchers would have no stable veteran pitcher to mentor them . I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree . I think we need to keep Doc. I am off to watch the game …take care all and good luck Jays

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